Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Jesus and the Restoration of the Davidic Kingdom (3.2.3. Jesus' Galilean Ministry)

David Ravens points out that Luke’s unique telling of Jesus’ ministry in Samaria (Luke 9:52; 17:11), seems to emphasize Jesus’ role as the Davidic restorer of the united kingdom. David and Solomon were the only two to reign over all twelve tribes. “[Luke’s] understanding of the restored Israel is rooted in the idea of one nation under a Davidic king, modeled on the nation before its division into the two kingdoms.”[1] Furthermore, the program of the missionary enterprise of the Church described by Jesus in Acts 1:8, “Jerusalem . . . Judea and Samaria . . . the end of earth,” describes the territories of the original Davidic Empire in the reverse order in which they successively were lost. In Luke-Acts, the Kingdom is being restored in the reverse order that it was dismantled.